• Your feedback is appreciated — please leave comments on any of the posts.• To find specific rock features or look up movie titles, TV shows, actors and production people, see the "LABELS" section — the long alphabetical listing on the right side of the page, below.• To join the MAILING LIST, send me an email at iversonmovieranch@gmail.com and let me know you'd like to sign up.• I've also begun a YouTube channel for Iverson Movie Ranch clips and other movie location videos, which you can get to by clicking here.• Here's a link to Garden of the Gods, the best-known section of the Iverson Movie Ranch (featured in the movie "Stagecoach," the "Lone Ranger" TV show and hundreds of other productions).• To go right to the great Iverson cinematographers, click here.

Friday, March 26, 2010

One of my favorite characters on the site of the former Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif., is Hangdog, situated in the "Above Nyoka" area of the Lower Iverson. Not unlike many of the Iverson features, Hangdog has a split personality. I see it as sort of a lion on the left, Labrador retriever on the right.

Hangdog also hosts a few smaller players, including a monkey head that lives in the Lab's eyebrow and a "mini-Hangdog," partially hidden behind a bush in this photo, down below the monkey head. You may be able to see these features better if you click on the photo for a larger view; you can also see "Mini-Hangdog" better in the photo at the bottom of this post.

That house in
the background, known as the Old Folks' House, is where the original owners of the Iverson Movie Ranch
lived for years. It burned down during the Porter Ranch Fire (also known as the Sesnon Fire) in October 2008. The Ruins, at bottom right, are one of the many mysteries that remained at Iverson well beyond the filming era.

The Ruins, with Hangdog, in 2008 (Bill Rock and Cactus Hill in background)

An estimated 3,500 movies and TV show episodes were shot on the ranch, mostly from the heyday of the B-Western through the early years of the TV Western, from the 1930s through the 1950s. I've been scanning old productions for a few years now trying to find the rocks and buildings of the Iverson Ranch, but it appears that the mysterious stone structure I call the Ruins was never used in the filming.

Here's one of those funny faces in the rocks that show up in movies and TV shows from time to time. I doubt anyone will be as amused by it as I am, but I hope you can at least see it. It looks perfect to me: little dark eye, button nose, grim mouth and that massive forehead. It's right in the middle of this screen shot, facing toward the left. This character, which I call Brainiac, appears in "The Scavenger," a 1955 episode of "The Roy Rogers Show." That's Dale Evans riding by.

In case you're having trouble seeing it, I've identified some of the key parts in this version of the photo. Brainiac the rock is actually the north end of a familiar movie rock, which I
used to refer to by the unimaginative name "the Log" before I learned
that it already had a name: Range Rider Rock.

Another "Brainiac-type" figure

Incidentally, Range Rider Rock — including its north "face," Brainiac — is now located in the Indian Hills Mobile Home Park area of the former Lower Iverson Movie Ranch. These days the rock is
hidden behind some mobile homes, and it's no longer possible to grab a photo that looks anything like Brainiac.

Brainiac the supervillain, battling Superman

Another so-called Brainiac in popular culture is the supervillain of the same name in DC Comics, seen fighting with Superman in the action shot above. This Brainiac is no relation to the one on the Iverson Movie Ranch — even though Superman did do stuff at Iverson, and you can read about that by clicking here. Personally, I find this Brainiac's giant brain to be not fully exaggerated enough — even though I understand that for the purposes of fighting people like Superman, a larger brain could get in the way.

This
post is part of a series on "Classic Rocks" — sandstone giants
located on the former Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif., that
became a part of not only America's physical landscape but also its
cultural heritage, through
featured roles in old movies, cliffhanger serials and early TV shows.
Other entries in the series can be seen by clicking here.

Note: Volume 14 of the DVD set "Roy Rogers With Dale Evans" includes the episode "The Scavenger." See Amazon link below.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Bugeye and Trapezoid are a pair of rocks that show up pretty regularly in old B-Westerns. They're not not particularly dramatic but they are good landmarks, easily recognized sitting atop a relatively flat wall-rock that was located alongside a road used frequently for chase sequences and horseback scenes. In the shot above they're seen in the "Lone Ranger" movie, a 1952 release made from the first three episodes of the "Lone Ranger" TV show, originally shot in 1949. They're not clear in this screen shot, but they're the two rocks near the top of the photo, Bugeye on the left and Trapezoid on the right.

Today they live in the Indian Hills Mobile Home Village, located at Topanga and the 118 Freeway in Chatsworth, Calif.

Monday, March 1, 2010

This blog post is part of a series on "Classic Rocks" — sandstone behemoths located on the former site of the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif., that were featured in old movies, cliffhanger serials and early TV shows. Other entries in the series can be seen by clicking here.

"Stage to Mesa City" (1947)

The Slates were located along a heavily used chase road on the Upper Iverson Movie Ranch, which meant the sandstone rock formation was captured on film with some regularity. The rock usually zips by pretty fast, but it's distinctive enough that it's often possible to spot it anyway. Watch for the Slates during chase scenes in old B-Westerns in particular. The above shot of the Slates comes from the PRC B-Western "Stage to Mesa City," starring Lash LaRue, with Al "Fuzzy" St. John as his sidekick.

The Slates as they appear today

The above recent photo of the Slates shows what they look like these days — in late winter and spring, when the surrounding foliage is green.

"Calamity Jane and the Texan" (1950)

This is another movie appearance by the Slates, in color this time. The Slates are seen at the right in the above shot from the Columbia Western "Calamity Jane and the Texan," which starred Evelyn Ankers as Calamity and Jimmy Ellison as the Texan. The shot looks to me as though it was also filmed in late winter or spring, as things were pretty green at the time.

Here's a selected listing of movies, serials and TV shows where the Slates can be found:

Reel Cowboys of the Santa Susanas

I'm searching for information on the great cinematographers of the B-movie era

I want to honor the legacy of the cinematographers and other production people who worked in relative obscurity during the heyday of the B-Western and the Saturday matinee serial. If you have information about any DPs, directors, production managers or other behind-the-scenes people involved in making B-movies, serials or early TV shows from the silent era through the 1960s — especially those involved in location work and anyone who may have worked at the Iverson Movie Ranch — I would love to hear from you.

With the exception of the most high-profile figures from this period — movie stars and prominent directors, mainly — I have been able to dig up precious little information on the talented people who shaped our movie history and our culture through low-budget, independent productions. I think it would be tragic to allow their legacies to fade from memory while there are still people around — a few, anyway — who can tell their stories.

I would especially like to hear from the survivors — spouses, friends, co-workers, children, grandchildren and beyond — of those who played a role in making movies at Iverson, as well as anyone who is around who has his or her own memories of Iverson.

I have a special interest in cinematographers — the men who aimed their cameras at Iverson's dramatic rock formations, among other things, and thereby recorded the ranch's legacy for posterity. I hope to hear from anyone who might be able to help flesh out their biographical information and gain insights into what made them tick.

Here are some of the cinematographers I would like to find out more about:

Want to see more Iverson Movie Ranch photos? Click on the picture of Hawk Rock, below, to go to the Iverson Movie Ranch photo page on Flickr.

What's that photo at the top of the page?

The black-and-white photo used as the page header is a screen shot from "Fury at Showdown," a 1957 feature from Robert Goldstein Productions starring John Derek, John Smith and Carolyn Craig. The film's director is Gerd Oswald, with cinematography by Oscar winner Joseph LaShelle.

The gargoyle-like figure that looms above the rider is Wrench Rock, a favorite among fans of the Iverson Movie Ranch. In the early days of my Iverson research I called it Bobby, and that name still appears in some places. The rock was traditionally called Indian Head, which unfortunately is a name that has been given to a number of rocks at Iverson.

Wrench Rock is located on what was the Upper Iverson, in the heavily filmed South Rim area, and can still be seen there today, although its "best side" — the view seen at the top of this page — is now blocked by a tree.

The rock is also sometimes called Upper Indian Head to distinguish it from the well-known Indian Head located on the Lower Iverson, in Garden of the Gods.